RPCVguy

12 hours ago, John Drake said:

 

So if you use Wise to withdraw from your US bank and deposit in your Thai bank, you get the 1 percent tax and can't get a refund on it when you file your taxes???

Yes, as the bill is for now, that's how I read it will apply to Wise.

"Remittance Tax - The Senate version was an improvement over the House version as it would not impose the tax on remittance transfers made by banks or bank cards.  The final Senate version imposes the tax at 1%, down from 3.5%, a further improvement.  The tax will still impact Americans abroad who will not use bank accounts, Credit cards or Debit cards to move money abroad. Although the tax has been lowered is it now not creditable. ACA advocacy has paid off as the Remittance Tax was of deep concern to our organization.  ACA will continue to advocate on this issue."
https://www.americansabroad.org/latest_update_on_provisions_in_the_one_big_beautiful_bill_obbb_that_affect_us_citizens_overseas_250701

On 6/23/2025 at 5:57 PM, MJoe said:

Y’All, what are we going to do about this?  NO ONE who usually has their 7162 form by now, has received it.  The forms aren’t still “on the way”.  The SSA’s 7162 system is automated.  The auto-generated form (specifically barcoded by year), are fed into an automated computer system when they are returned (which retains your payments if the computer reads “your circumstances haven’t changed”).  If you don’t return the computer generated barcoded form, the system stops your benefits in February 2026.  There isn’t a staff person that is going to manually check any returned paperwork outside their automated system.  And clearly the automated system isn’t operating this year.  It was hard enough to get reinstated if your benefits get stopped in the past.  Now it will be an absolute nightmare to try to get them reinstated.

I had clean photos of my form from 2024 that show the bar coding you discuss. I printed those out, front and back, completed them and signed/dated anew. In the box above the signature I added a comment that the 2025 form never arrived.
New photos and mailed air mail. (68 baht - I too have learned that the registered mail stops at the Wilkes-Barr Postal center. That year I got help from my congressman's office to get a form to SSA.) 

2 hours ago, SLOWHAND225 said:

No it doesn't.
What it does do is require you to be a responsible adult and get that taken care of if you want to vote.  Simple to do except for the lazy.

How in the world did that make mail in voting harder ? lol. They have to leave the house 5 days earlier to mail it ? wtf

You chose not to read my post for understanding. With rents rising and many people shifting residences (or tents, or...) the residential addresses for millions of people shift and invalidate voter registrations. Add in the priorities of food, or medical issues and these people will not be allowed to vote. Same for students, off to school or in he military.
The mail in vote issue affects citizens residing overseas or serving in the military. And the birth certificate won't match the name of most married women.
Your confidence in access to information and documents should be the norm, but the reality is not the case.
Voting by non-citizens is a serious crime. Serious enough that even when sought to find examples, the results are rarely there. Certainly too few to shift elections counted in the numbers needed to shift a state's result.

3 hours ago, CallumWK said:

 

Any ID obtained before married will be tied to birth certificate, otherwise how would they be able to obtain that ID?

You are making up things much

That is not the interpretation accepted in Texas, and it is meant to become a national concept.
It can be fixed by getting a passport, but that is a 10 year document hassle that most people don't have - because they don't travel. If only used so as to allow women to vote, it is essentially another form of poll tax. (A concept that is unconstitutional.)

13 hours ago, Moonlover said:

I don't you think you actually have a problem Sheryl. Did you watch the video I posted on Tuesday? In it the MD of Tax Talk was asked whether those whose remitted assessable income was below the tax threshold need to file a tax return. He stated, quite clearly that they did not And a senior legal officer from TRD did not contradict him! (View the video from about 28 minutes if you don't care to watch it all)

 

So I guess from that and @NoDisplayName' comment above, you've no need to sweat about it.

 

 

THANK YOU!
I had missed seeing this video, but have now not only watched it in its entirety, but have saved the link, and forwarded it to 3 of my Thai family members who (like me) have assessable income BELOW THE THRESHOLD FOR WHICH IT IS EVEN NECESSARY to file a tax return. In my case, that includes not even needing to get a Tax ID#. The absolute advantage of the video is that they can hear the Thai Q&A directly.
I had approached our rural RD office last September, and there was no awareness of DTA exclusions like Social Security.

7 hours ago, Hawaiian said:

On March 4,2024, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Colorado cannot ban Trump from the presidential ballot.  While specifically naming Colorado it applies to all states.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-68280062

The Supreme Court sidestepped the issue of the insurrection. Their decision limited a state's ability to keep people off a ballot for national elections such as the presidency. They said only the (hopelessly divided) Congress could exclude someone from being on the ballot. The BBC article you supplied also points to:

2 hours ago, Hawaiian said:

Since when has Congress the power given to the Judiciary.  AFAIK, no court has ruled that Donald Trump has committed an act of INSURRECTION or REBELLION.

There was a court ruling atop the initial votes of the House and Senate:
A majority of the Colorado Supreme court held that:  "Trump is disqualified from holding the office of president under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment,”
Trump engaged in insurrection, court says: "The top Colorado court upheld the trial judge’s conclusions that the January 6 assault on the US Capitol was an insurrection and that Trump “engaged in” that insurrection. These are key legal hurdles that the challengers needed to clear before Trump could be removed from any ballot, largely because the text of the 14th Amendment doesn’t actually define an “insurrection” or spell out what it means to “engage in” insurrection."  https://edition.cnn.com/politics/live-news/colorado-trump-14th-amendment-12-19-23/index.html
Then back to my original post, this was not the only adjudication. The House and Senate each voted by a majority vote to the same offenses. The federal case was successfully stalled from going to trial, but the evidence gathered exceeded what the House Select Committee had the ability to gather.

Quoting the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution

Section 3 Disqualification from Holding Office

On 1/4/2025 at 12:55 PM, SunnyinBangrak said:

The whole point was to prevent him from becoming President. Now the real jury delivered their landslide verdict on Nov 5th, I suspect this bent judge is just doing this so he can keep the gag orders in place to stop Trump truthbombing on his truth social about the judges bribes by proxy thanks to bringing this nonsensical case.

 

On 7/14/2024 at 1:28 PM, sometimewoodworker said:

A ridiculous request as there are 61 different DTAs 

No. The Thai RD says they want all income listed. IF they stick by that demand, there are things our embassies would be remiss not to pressure for:
Step one would be to change the top line from saying "assessable Income" meaning subject to being taxed. All Income sources is what that line must be changed to state.
Then there needs to be a line declaring the amount not taxable and state the person's nationality as to which DTA is being used.
The TRD has the option to then audit or not.

This process is NOT what I would want to do, but it at least puts clerks at the TRD on notice that there are a large number of exemptions that Thailand agreed to... and did so to entice thousands of expats to move here and spend foreign earned currency in the country over months and years. It sure helped during the COVID pandemic to have that regular cash flow as trade struggled.
The good news should be that if someone makes it through their first audit (if ever required) the topics and line items for most expats will be the same each year.
 

37 minutes ago, Mike Lister said:

There is a link in the document in the OP that will let you download your DTA in English.

 

Also, US SSc is exempt, under DTA rules.

Yes, that is what I used to access the DTA. The left side of those 2 images are screen captures from the DTA between Thailand and the USA. The right side is a Google Translation of the same text into Thai, printed side by side to show the local TRD officer if asked to explain my bank cash flow vs what will be listed on the tax filing.
ALL of this discussion for me and many others would not be necessary if the Tax forms are revised to account for DTA exemptions from tax assessability/ consideration.

43 minutes ago, Mike Lister said:

There is currently no need to declare non assessable income, although that may change towards the end of this year as the new tax forms are redesigned and released for use (we understand they will be available in November). Typically in the past, Social Security income for example, was simply left off the the tax form and not declared at all (I didn't declare mine and the TRD has been happy with that).

So simply ignore the non-assessible amounts, unless there are new forms for 2024 that allow for the declaration and then elimination of those amounts.
Meanwhile, I used Google Translate and generated these two portions of the USA/Thai DTA as images to print and show to TRD if they ask for details.

__________________________________________________________________________________

I notice that the NOAA image above loads very slowly for now, the site likely very busy.
The Berkeley Earth site published their April Analysis today. As I've noted, their site is consistently the most details in number and quality of reporting.
This time, instead of linking to the site from its source, I have loaded the images to this post.

On 5/6/2024 at 7:19 PM, RPCVguy said:

Earlier I commented that the monthly analysis for April from Berkeley Earth would not be out until mid May. This one is lower resolution, but it gives the broad stroke review comparing this April for prior Aprils. the caption with it, posted in a group for Climate Alerts, reads:

"April 2024 easily beat the record for warmest April. A staggering 21% of the globe had their warmest April since 1940. Even when you exclude the oceans, April 2024 over land was also the warmest on record."

Brian Bordtschneider
When a higher resolution mapping becomes available, I expect to see splashes of coloring for 2nd or 3rd warmest appearing throughout, but the dominant regional trend for SE Asia is that this was the warmest April on record. That does not mean every day was the warmest, but it means the temperatures and time at those elevated temperatures per day are generally setting this April as the warmest on record.

I posted earlier the above mapping from the European site. Yet, the debate continued. 😲
It is good that people care enough to track, but many comments were based on limited data, maybe from a single location.

IT IS GREAT THAT THE RAINS HAVE ARRIVED in amounts sufficient to soak up and relieve the heat as the water evaporated.
If they are not yet sufficient in some areas, then the light rains make it feel like pouring some water on the rocks of a sauna.

Meanwhile, NOAA has released its report as to April. It is indeed a higher resolution than my earlier post. It explicitly shows most of the grid for Thailand was at record high heat, with a patch of the North West (into Myanmar) that was not quite setting a record. (2019 holds the record there.) The map below is one of several at:
https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/monitoring/monthly-report/global/202404

Of note in the report by NOAA is this quote, using a word much argued in this and related threads.
"Record warm April temperatures in Southeast Asia were due in part to a heatwave in late April with daily high temperatures exceeding 38-43°C (100-110°F) in an area stretching from India to southeastern China and the Philippines. "

Earlier I commented that the monthly analysis for April from Berkeley Earth would not be out until mid May. This one is lower resolution, but it gives the broad stroke review comparing this April for prior Aprils. the caption with it, posted in a group for Climate Alerts, reads:

"April 2024 easily beat the record for warmest April. A staggering 21% of the globe had their warmest April since 1940. Even when you exclude the oceans, April 2024 over land was also the warmest on record."

Brian Bordtschneider
When a higher resolution mapping becomes available, I expect to see splashes of coloring for 2nd or 3rd warmest appearing throughout, but the dominant regional trend for SE Asia is that this was the warmest April on record. That does not mean every day was the warmest, but it means the temperatures and time at those elevated temperatures per day are generally setting this April as the warmest on record.

1 hour ago, radiochaser said:

What have the temperatures been in Thailand lately?   Saying it's hot doesn't mean much without some perspective, such as a report on measured temperatures.   It's been hotter lately where I live, but it's normal temperatures for this time of the year, going up into the mid 80 deg F.!   And there will be hotter days to come. 

This was asked and answered in another thread - specifically for Bangkok when I posted at
•

Then, to take a top down look at all of Thailand as to whether this year has been warmer or similar to historical averages, we are still days away from the release of April's date, but here is a map of January through March, and Thailand has been warmer than average.

Global surface temperature anomalies for the first three months of 2024 compared to a 1951-80 baseline period. Figure from Berkeley Earth.

While all of Thailand was warmer than average in March, only portions of Thailand  averaged the month as one of the top 5 hottest months ever. This is an example of the map that will be released sometime around mid-May for April.

16 hours ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

I have an Amazon Alexa device at home that gives me current temperatures for Bangkok in real time every day. That's been showing daily highs illustrated by the gray bar peaks right around 100 F., sometimes a bit above, sometimes a bit below, for many days now. And the below chart seems to confirm that.

 

 

https://weatherspark.com/h/m/113416/2024/4/Historical-Weather-in-April-2024-in-Bangkok-Thailand#Figures-Temperature

 

Seems as though past years in April, as illustrated by the peaks of the gray shaded bars, have been quite a bit cooler, though 2023 was warming up:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

15 hours ago, KhunLA said:

And yet, they look almost identical to me ... 

 

Nor has the average high changed in 40-70 years, all of 0.7°F

 

 

You do have to consider, there's a lot more concrete and buildings, holding and radiating temps, so without those, and ambient air, might even be less.

 

Maybe do comparison elsewhere in TH, that hasn't changed as much.

Two posts with excellent detail to which I've extracted and commented upon why and how I see the comparisons need to be made.

The historical averages are increasing. they do so less rapidly near the coast than they do inland. Averages matter, but it is the peak temperatures in the tropics that stress the ability of humans to survive outside (or indoors if the power cuts off.)
The remnants of the El Niño that started last June are what are forecast to continue bothering SE Asia through most of May. If you have access to and are using air conditioning to modify your situation, enjoy it and appreciate its assistance. Many, many people in Thailand do not.
 

Interesting. This fits my desire to express warnings while satisfying the desire to avoid the term Eat Wave. 
The USA National Weather Service has posted an experimental coding for something they are labeling HeatRisk.
Unlike their chart of Heat Index, which calculates a number based upon Heat & Humidity or even the Misery Index that includes Wind Chill into the Heat Index, The HeatRisk  takes into consideration:

• How unusual the heat is for the time of the year
• The duration of the heat including both daytime and nighttime temperatures
• If those temperatures pose an elevated risk of heat-related impacts based on data from the CDC

Although I do not have access to anywhere near the amount of localized temperature and humidity data to begin to map Thailand's current situation, I suspect that the duration of elevated temperatures experienced this month in Thailand would be sufficient to apply the level 4 Magenta designation to them.
Unlike Heat Wave, which term has a definition of a specific number of degrees for a specific number of days, this designation can and does vary daily as is demonstrated in the mapping of the USA on different days this week as seen under the sub-menu for maps at:
https://www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/heatrisk/

19 hours ago, dinsdale said:

I see lots of confused emojis to my quoted post. I suggest those who are confused look up the definition of what a heatwave actually is. What we are experiencing is not a heatwave within the definition. What it is is continuous highs at the higher end of April maximum temperatures. This is the unusual part. Maximums are not unusually high for April. 

I'm not one who has posted such emojis on your post. The definition of a heat wave was maybe created (in Europe and North America) to cover situations that are dangerous to the health of many people. Temperatures in those regions vary more widely than in the tropics. The tropics are both more consistent in temperatures and simply closer to the limits of what humans can tolerate metabolically. A true "Heat Wave" in the tropics would be physically far more dangerous to life than one in temperate climate zones.

I agree on what the current definition is for heat wave, but there is not currently a suitable English word for the Heat Index Danger Zone now being experienced daily over a wide region of SE Asia.
The Link I provided in my above comment, with images refines the standard HEAT INDEX by including Wind Chill.
That site calls their index a MISERY INDEX.
People can access the menu for making the site interactive by clicking the word "earth" at the bottom left. The advantage of the site is that it accesses satellite weather data and presents it as a map, easy to understand.
I only wish the colors in the grid at the right (by Berkeley Earth) and the colors of the map matched. What is Amber on the map is in the light red in the grid. The reason so many people are agreeing with the discomfort of this month is that the FEELS LIKE temperature and humidity has been persistently high for the month... I see since April 3rd.
Because the humidity will rise faster than temperatures will drop as the monsoon rains begin, we can expect that the danger zone conditions will migrate towards extreme danger conditions. Things will then cool down as sufficient rain absorbs the excess heat now stored in roadways and building structures.

21 hours ago, dinsdale said:

Daily temperatures for Thailand in April usually range between mid 30°C to low 40°C maximums and high 20°'s for overnight minimums depending where you are. Average daily temperature is what it says, an average of both maximum and minimum temps. The average max for the next ten days where I am including today is 38.9°C with 29°C being the average overnight minimum. So no heatwave just continuous heat. Having said this I would think this year April will go down as one of, if not the, hottest on record. Doesn't make it a heatwave though as maximums and minimums are not unusually hot it's just continuous.

The WMO definition of a heatwave may need to be reconsidered. Those writing the definition might have shown a bias due to living in temperate latitudes. 2 Billion people live in the tropics where the temperatures are consistently closer to the ceiling defined by metabolic limits. People with a disease die when they sustain a fever of 40ºC/ 104°F. That is the same thermal limit if heat and humidity combine to inhibit cooling via sweating. Heat stroke occurs when their core body temperatures rise from environmental heat.

 

21 hours ago, jonclark said:

Just because you haven't experienced or seen what you define as a heatwave, doesn't me other people and parts of thailand have shared that experienced. My in laws who live 20km outside of Kanchanaburi have had to up sticks and move in with us as they simply could not bear the heat any longer and have had temperatures of 40+ for many, many days. And they have been in Thailand far longer than you or I being in their late 60's. They usually take the piss out of me as I am on the one complaining of the heat - nice to turn the tables for once. 

 

When we parked up to collect them and returned to the car an hour or so later - the temp in the car was a whopping 53 (obviously it a car and metal so conducts heat) but still I have rarely seen my car thermometer register anything above 40.

 

Splitting hairs as to if this is a heatwave of not, simply ignores the fact that is it very hot. End of. And on that everyone agrees. 

 

Our home is 2-stories, with the AC upstairs. Unfortunately, this year there are signs of a wiring problem in our attic - that no one dare go into to explore/fix. I'm about to go downstairs - again. It is sufficiently cooler to be tolerable while doing nothing beyond reading. We have the following report that came out, sadly pointing to SE Asia as the region most at risk of continued heat through the end of May as reported in this paper:
"The tropics, characterized by high temperatures and humidities, face heightened risks from heat-related impacts (Parkes et al., 2022; Raymond et al., 2020, 2021; Sherwood & Huber, 2010). This vulnerability is exacerbated by the consistent warming trend, leading to more frequent and intense heat events."
https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2023GL106990


Then looking at the actual conditions across SE Asia on Earth Day where areas in amber equate to 40ºC or higher, thus in the danger zone. The conditions  have been persistently the same since April 3rd. Misery Index (Heat Index discounted for wind chill) is mapped and posted in an interactive manner using weather data from EMC / NCEP / NWS / NOAA

• https://earth.nullschool.net/#2024/04/22/0700Z/wind/surface/level/overlay=misery_index/orthographic=-266.95,16.30,1823/loc=100.006,14.143